


Both, Neither

by nagia



Category: Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-18
Updated: 2013-06-18
Packaged: 2017-12-15 08:38:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/847506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagia/pseuds/nagia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shinomori Han does not understand either of his parents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Both, Neither

Shinomori Han doesn’t really understand either of his parents.

He has heard that sons and mothers are close, but that is only the case for his earliest childhood memories.  His mother is hard and bright and seeking, yet she never seems to find anything.  (Only his father, and sometimes him.)  She is a wild pulse of energy, undirected; a star that falls in fragments, every which way.

He loves her: her frenetic pace, her restlessness, her constant upward trajectory and endless outward focus.  He loves the mischief and the impossible tenderness, the affection and amusement and exasperation she shows the entire world.

But he doesn’t understand it.

His father is as much a mystery.  Focused, driven, and yet soothingly quiet.  His father is always going somewhere and yet Han is never quite sure where and he is definitely never sure how.

He thinks he might understand why, though.  A Shinomori always has somewhere to be, something to accomplish — no Shinomori would ever aspire so low as to have something  to _do_ — and most importantly, someone to protect.

Han loves his father too.  The somber, serious nature.  The complexities and contradictions.  The quiet determination and unending drills on the most pragmatic, the most effective course.

But he doesn’t understand that, either.

The truth is, Han is both.

The truth is, Han is neither.

Han is grateful his parents never try to make him choose.


End file.
